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Offlinebuddhahoodlum
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Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's
    #6855611 - 04/30/07 09:17 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

Just wondering if anyone here has read Breaking Open the Head or 2012:Return of the Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck. They look like pretty interesting books but I would like to get someone else's feedback on it before I go buy both of them.


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“I believe that water will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of an intensity of which coal is not capable.” – Jules Verne, T

“Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by power obtainable at any point in the universe...it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheel-work of nature."
- Nikola Tesla


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InvisiblePenguarky Tunguin
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: buddhahoodlum]
    #6855632 - 04/30/07 09:20 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

I liked Breaking Open very much. Had some good insights into his trips and he said some damn interesting stories.

2012 is way more new-agey, but Pinchbeck doesn't like to be called it. Said book has Pinchbeck's divine channeling in it, Mayan channeling no less.

Read this:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11217201/daniel_pinchbeck_and_the_new_psychedelic_elite


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Every mistake, intentional or otherwise, in the above post, is the fault of the reader.

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OfflineCerebralFlower
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Penguarky Tunguin]
    #6855718 - 04/30/07 09:37 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

wassup budda!
i read some of daniels breaking open the head, couldnt get into it that well he is pretty antagonisitic i suppose, still intresting enough
hes gonna be at some festival this year


--------------------
God says dance with your heart
And shake free of you desire

Where theres a will theres always a way
When you get confused listen to the music play


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Invisibledblaney
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: buddhahoodlum]
    #6855747 - 04/30/07 09:43 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

Yeah I read breaking open the head...thought it was an interesting anthropological read.

Nice avatar by the way!


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"What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?"

"Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword"
- John Mayer

Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin.

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln

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Invisiblespiritualemerg
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Registered: 03/28/07 Happy 17th Shroomiversary!
Posts: 366
Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: buddhahoodlum]
    #6855755 - 04/30/07 09:45 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

I enjoyed "Breaking Open the Head" and even purchased a few extra copies to pass out to friends. I've not yet read "Quetzalcoatl".

If I have criticisms they wouldn't be of Daniel himself (who is a nice enough guy) but rather of the mystique that can form around the concepts he was tackling. During my time as a member of Daniel's community there were two suicides among community members. One individual seemed to clearly be going through a form of spiritual emergency, another may have been going through a similar process. Regardless, the community never seemed (to me) to recover from the impact of those deaths.

There are lessons in such experiences. I know Daniel, himself, suggested that newcomers seek out established shamans and guides before following that particular path, while also acknowledging that such guides are difficult to come by in this culture.

As for his books, I enjoyed his writing. I recently passed one of his books on to a young man I know.


.


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~ Kindness is cheap.  It's unkindness that always demands the highest price.

Blogs: Spiritual Emergency | Spiritual Recovery | Voices of Recovery | A Jungian Approach to Psychosis

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InvisibleHuehuecoyotl
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: buddhahoodlum]
    #6856928 - 05/01/07 04:31 AM (16 years, 10 months ago)

It is mostly an amateur rehashing of the same old stuff the authors of the 1960s and 70s already covered much better. Don't waste your dollar. Instead read some of the classics from that field like Leary, Lilly, Castaneda, or Ram Dass.


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"A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda

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Invisibleredgreenvines
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
    #6856930 - 05/01/07 04:34 AM (16 years, 10 months ago)

just read
read anything
read everything


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:confused: _ :brainfart:🧠  _ :finger:

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InvisibleOrgoneConclusion
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
    #6856940 - 05/01/07 04:42 AM (16 years, 10 months ago)

I especially like the part where he finds a large cockroach in his silverware drawer in his New York apartment and takes that as a sign of an interdimensional portal opening. :rolleyes:


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Invisiblespiritualemerg
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
    #6857761 - 05/01/07 10:59 AM (16 years, 10 months ago)

OrgoneConclusion: I especially like the part where he finds a large cockroach in his silverware drawer in his New York apartment and takes that as a sign of an interdimensional portal opening.

Have you seen the size of cockroaches in New York?

Seriously, yes -- Daniel does have some moments when he freaks out a little. I'm assuming that fear, rational or not, is part of the package. Either way, he shared the experience, even though it may have been personally embarassing for him.


.


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~ Kindness is cheap.  It's unkindness that always demands the highest price.

Blogs: Spiritual Emergency | Spiritual Recovery | Voices of Recovery | A Jungian Approach to Psychosis

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InvisibleOrgoneConclusion
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: spiritualemerg]
    #6858275 - 05/01/07 01:22 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

I am interested in why you couch the suicides in the term 'spiritual emergency'.


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InvisibleOrgoneConclusion
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: spiritualemerg]
    #6858380 - 05/01/07 01:46 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

Look! Its proof of the DPT world:



'Hey, don't bogart that roach, dude!' :spliff:


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Invisiblespiritualemerg
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
    #6858531 - 05/01/07 02:30 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

OrgoneConclusion: I am interested in why you couch the suicides in the term 'spiritual emergency'.

The two individuals who committed suicide were Michael Heany and Daniel Carpenter.  Daniel's book A Psychonaut's Guide to the Invisible Landscape was published posthumously. 

Obviously Daniel was going through a form of crisis -- he wouldn't have killed himself if that wasn't the case, however it's not so clear if his crisis could be considered a form of spiritual emergency.

The circumstances were somewhat different in Michael's case...

Quote:

Michael was a graduate of John Hopkins University in their
mathematics program. A clearly sensitive young man, Michael also wrote poetry, had been practicing kundalini yoga and experimenting with ethnogens when he began to experience a strange sequence of synchronicities and coincidences. What was most striking to me at that time was that he had encountered three women in swift succession, appropriately named Eve, Helen and Mary.

Michael jumped off a bridge two days before Christmas. He was the teacher who taught me why it's important to share my experience with others -- so they feel less alone in theirs. Michael was 31 years old. I will never forget the anguish of his father.

-- Dedication





Michael's circumstances contain a number of characteristics that identify it as a form of spiritual emergency; In his case, likely a form of kundalini awakening which became an initiatory crisis.  In this culture, these kind of events are frequently perceived to be a form of psychosis and/or schizophrenia.

What's noteworthy about his encounters with those three women is those are identified stages of the anima.  In my estimation, the anima or animus is the only guide capable of safely leading one into the depths of the unconscious and back out again.  I believe Michael was looking for his Sophia -- his guide, although he was also at a stage where he was externalizing inner content.  At the point he killed himself, he described visions of hell and being tormented by demons.  Within a Jungian framework, this might represent shadow content.  It can be very difficult at this point to distinguish between the inner and the outer.   

Both deaths were tragic; both of them had a deep impact on the community; their families are still dealing with the impact of those losses.  The irony is that community was dedicated to the exploration of shamanism -- healing.  This is part of the danger of the "mystique" of Daniel's book; a true shamanic initiation is a life-threatening event with real life impact.  Survival, even sanity, is not a guarantee.



.


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~ Kindness is cheap.  It's unkindness that always demands the highest price.

Blogs: Spiritual Emergency | Spiritual Recovery | Voices of Recovery | A Jungian Approach to Psychosis

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InvisibleOrgoneConclusion
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: spiritualemerg]
    #6858557 - 05/01/07 02:39 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

In his case, likely a form of kundalini awakening which became an initiatory crisis. In this culture, these kind of events are frequently perceived to be a form of psychosis and/or schizophrenia.





There is no evidence for 'kundalini awakening' nor an 'initiatory crisis'. Sorry, but this a bunch of New Age mumbo-jumbo. I could make an equally nonsensical 'theory' and it would carry as much weight.


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Edited by OrgoneConclusion (05/01/07 02:50 PM)

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Invisiblespiritualemerg
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
    #6858908 - 05/01/07 03:52 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

There is no evidence for 'kundalini awakening' nor an 'initiatory crisis'. Sorry, but this a bunch of New Age mumbo-jumbo. I could make an equally nonsensical 'theory' and it would carry as much weight.

shrug


.


--------------------
~ Kindness is cheap.  It's unkindness that always demands the highest price.

Blogs: Spiritual Emergency | Spiritual Recovery | Voices of Recovery | A Jungian Approach to Psychosis

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InvisibleIcelander
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
    #6858930 - 05/01/07 03:59 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

I know of anecdotal evidence. Veritas has experienced this kundalini rise during Trantric practice.

I leave the details to your imagination.;)


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

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InvisibleVeritas
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: spiritualemerg]
    #6859039 - 05/01/07 04:25 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

This category can be used when the focus of clinical attention is a religious or spiritual problem. Examples include distressing experiences that involve loss or questioning of faith, problems associated with conversion to a new faith, or questioning of other spiritual values which may not necessarily be related to an organized church or religious institution. (American Psychiatric Association, 1994, p. 685)




This DSM-IV entry does not seem to support the extreme symptoms described by proponents of Spiritual Emergency. Why is this disorder distinct from other entries in the DSM which DO include the extreme symptoms (i.e. schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, psychosis)?

Many people who are engaged in delusional thinking will use religious/spiritual iconography and descriptions to explain their behavior. Why are they different from one in the midst of Spiritual Emergency, or are they, in your opinion?

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InvisibleVeritas
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Icelander]
    #6859052 - 05/01/07 04:30 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

The Kundalini experiences they are describing seem very different from my own, in that they are all negative and/or manic in nature.  Perhaps the energy is difficult to deal with if one is either unprepared or unstable?  :confused:

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Invisiblespiritualemerg
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Veritas]
    #6859069 - 05/01/07 04:35 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

If you wish to know the answers to your questions Veritas, I suggest you continue reading the article I linked and that you quoted from. Beyond that, I have two blogs filled with information -- you are welcome to read them should you sincerely be seeking more information about spiritual emergencies.


.


--------------------
~ Kindness is cheap.  It's unkindness that always demands the highest price.

Blogs: Spiritual Emergency | Spiritual Recovery | Voices of Recovery | A Jungian Approach to Psychosis

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InvisibleOrgoneConclusion
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: spiritualemerg]
    #6859071 - 05/01/07 04:35 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

That paper tells us nothing about kundalini nor give any evidence of its existence.

A disciple once went to his guru. "Master, I am shaking uncontrollably much of the time. I think I am unable to handle the serpent's power."

Master: "You are very likely diabetic. Go see a doctor."

The disciple did, in fact have stage II diabetes and not kundalini overload.


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InvisibleVeritas
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: spiritualemerg]
    #6859089 - 05/01/07 04:43 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

I read the entire article. I have also read an extensive amount of material regarding this issue, none of which has addressed specifically why it is necessary or appropriate to term some mental illnesses "spiritual emergencies," and other mental illnesses as mental illnesses.

The article you linked mentioned that those undergoing a spiritual emergency are usually interested in working through it, and fairly capable of rationally discussing the issues they are experiencing. To me, this sounds more akin to an existential crisis, as opposed to a serious departure from sanity. Why the hyperbole, if this problem is mild enough in practice to be distinguished from serious mental illness?

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InvisibleIcelander
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Veritas]
    #6859092 - 05/01/07 04:45 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

Veritas said:
The Kundalini experiences they are describing seem very different from my own, in that they are all negative and/or manic in nature.  Perhaps the energy is difficult to deal with if one is either unprepared or unstable?  :confused:




Well, you must admit it's powerful. If you weren't prepared and couldn't stop it, it could get freaky don't you think.

Anyway my main point is that you had some experience of an energy movement that could be evidence of kundalini.


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

Edited by Icelander (05/01/07 04:46 PM)

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InvisibleVeritas
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Icelander]
    #6859103 - 05/01/07 04:49 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

My experience is not persuasive evidence, just as the anecdotal reports used to support other New Age ideas are not evidence of their validity.

In this realm, one must try it themselves & see what happens.  :shrug:

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InvisibleIcelander
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Veritas]
    #6859107 - 05/01/07 04:50 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

Did I say differently?


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

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InvisibleVeritas
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Icelander]
    #6859112 - 05/01/07 04:51 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

You said it could be evidence.  I say it could not. 

(See, we do disagree sometimes!  :lol:)

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InvisibleIcelander
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Veritas]
    #6859134 - 05/01/07 04:56 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

Veritas said:
You said it could be evidence.  I say it could not. 

(See, we do disagree sometimes!  :lol:)




I know of anecdotal evidence.

This was my origional statement. Is that somehow incorrect? :confused:


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

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InvisibleVeritas
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Icelander]
    #6859146 - 05/01/07 04:59 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

Misuse of anecdotal evidence is a logical fallacy and is sometimes informally referred to as the "person who" fallacy ("I know a person who..."; "I know of a case where..." etc. Compare with hasty generalization).




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence

:wink:

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InvisibleIcelander
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Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Veritas]
    #6859168 - 05/01/07 05:06 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

Veritas said:
Quote:

Misuse of anecdotal evidence is a logical fallacy and is sometimes informally referred to as the "person who" fallacy ("I know a person who..."; "I know of a case where..." etc. Compare with hasty generalization).




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence

:wink:




I did not encourage it's use as a hasty generalization. By stating it was anecdotal I made sure I wasn't stating it as hard evidence or fact. Anecdotal evidence is an informal account of evidence According to your source it is a form of evidence and so I maintain I am correct. You know I am familiar with the limitations of anecdotal evidence from here and my work. I was just presenting it as a possibility.


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

Edited by Icelander (05/01/07 05:07 PM)

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Invisiblespiritualemerg
Stranger

Registered: 03/28/07 Happy 17th Shroomiversary!
Posts: 366
Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Veritas]
    #6859277 - 05/01/07 05:37 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

Veritas: The Kundalini experiences they are describing seem very different from my own, in that they are all negative and/or manic in nature. Perhaps the energy is difficult to deal with if one is either unprepared or unstable?

Quote:

Many people, and even published authors on kundalini, associate kundalini awakening with symptoms such as a mild sense of a trickle of energy up the spine. This does indicate some energetic movement, but not, in my opinion, a true kundalini awakening. Nearly ever person I know with what I call a "true awakening" has responded to phrases like "the freight train" inside or "the volcano erupting" inside. More fundamentally, in a mild energetic movement the ego stays intact (in a healthy individual) and enjoys the pleasant sensations much like any other physical sensation.

In a "true awakening" the force of kundalini eclipses the ego altogether and the individual is almost certain to feel disoriented for some time. There will almost certainly be periods of pronounced psychological discomfort and social alienation. Works from the literature of Tibetan Buddhism indicate two distinct periods of spiritual emergency. The first is at the beginning of true kundalini awakening in which one feels an acute anxiety and sense of alienation from the world. The second is after the process has considerably advanced and one feels an acute fear of one's own internal groundlessness. Even in the most difficult periods these challenging experiences are balanced by periods of deep bliss and profound awareness. Moreover, in time any negative experiences give way to deep realization.





See also:

  • Kundalini: Psychosis or Transcendence

  • A Spirituality That Transforms

  • Spiritual Emergency or Psychiatric Disorder


    Michael Heany was not a schizophrenic. It's for him, and others like him, who go through those kind of experiences without understanding or support, that I made this post.


    Music of the Hour: Starman

    .


  • --------------------
    ~ Kindness is cheap.  It's unkindness that always demands the highest price.

    Blogs: Spiritual Emergency | Spiritual Recovery | Voices of Recovery | A Jungian Approach to Psychosis

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    InvisibleVeritas
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    Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: spiritualemerg]
        #6859304 - 05/01/07 05:45 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

    Defining a difficult experience with kundalini awakening as "TRUE" awakening seems unreasonable. Many of the books I have read on kundalini & energy work disagree with this assessment of what defines a true awakening. Additionally, a friend who practices reiki and teaches kundalini yoga has repeatedly asserted that the negative experiences many have with kundalini are due to resistance and tension, and that they do not represent the character of this experience.

    My experiences have been intense, mind-blowing, scary and ALSO pleasurable and wonderful, all at the same time. I see no reason to pathologize negative kundalini experiences nor to view positive experiences as somehow "less than" the experiences of those who become deeply disturbed.

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    Invisiblespiritualemerg
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    Re: Daniel Pinchbeck's Book's [Re: Veritas]
        #6864503 - 05/02/07 07:40 PM (16 years, 10 months ago)

    Why the hyperbole, if this problem is mild enough in practice to be distinguished from serious mental illness?

    Quote:


    As our outer and inner worlds dissolve, we lose our sense of reference. There arises a great sense of unease, leading into a realm of fear and terror. "Where is there any security? Wherever I look, things are dissolving."

    We can experience this dissolution and dying within our own body. We may look down and see pieces of our own body seeming to melt away and decay, as if we were a corpse. As the realm of terror deepens, periods of paranoia may arise. In this stage, wherever we look, we become fearful of danger...

    Source: Ego Death




    Quote:


    The visionary adventure begins with a gruesome journey into the underworld, the realm of the dead...

    During the initial stage the person typically experiences a powerful inner journey into the underworld where they undergo terrible ordeals and are attacked by demonic entities. Frequently "power animals" act as guides, teachers and helpers in the frightening and foreign regions of the underworld. With the help of guardian spirits, the initiate learns about the rules and taboos of inner life and the laws of higher natural order. Facing fear and death are typical experiences. Initiates frequently undergo agonising torture, dismemberment, and finally death and annihilation.

    Source: Shamanic Crisis





    Quote:

    One morning as you look out the window, the city seems more ragged than usual. A nearby building appears to be on fire. There's a sulphurous stench in the air. Broken glass and rubble litter the streets. People lie on the pavement and in doorways, seemingly dead. Your terror turns to panic when you notice a rat gnawing on a corpse. Screaming, you rush to the bathroom to throw up. From your skeletal reflection in the mirror, you realise you too have died: empty eye sockets stare back at you from a hollow skull.

    The end of the world? Not exactly. Hallucination? Yes. The vision of death described above is typical of the onset of the psychological condition known as the Acute Schizophrenic Break Syndrome.

    Whether in the hospital, at home, or discharged onto the street, these are ordinary people whose normal lives were suddenly interrupted by the unexpected, spontaneous, and powerful onset of a dramatic non-ordinary state of consciousness.

    The vision typically begins with Apocalyptic scenes of death and world destruction...

    Source: The Inner Apocalypse





    Quote:


    Good morning
    Don't cop out
    You crawled from the cancer
    To land on your feet
    Are you crazy
    To want this
    Even for awhile?

    We're making
    This shit up
    The reasons for Being
    are easy to pay
    You can't remember the others
    They just kind of went away ...

    So you're driving
    It's rush hour
    The cars on the freeway
    Are moving like slugs
    When you drift off
    To wake up
    Do you always hit the brakes?

    And we're done
    Lying for the living
    The strange days have come
    And you are ...
    You're gone
    You're gone
    You're either dead or dying
    Dead or trying
    To go

    It's evening
    You're tired
    You sleepwalk, a robot
    Out to the street
    Crazy
    to want this
    Even for a while.

    Driving
    It's rush hour
    The cars on the freeway are moving
    backwards . . .
    Into a wall of fire
    Backwards...
    Into a wall of fire
    Backwards...
    Into the wall of fire
    BACKWARDS!
    INTO THE WALL OF FIRE!!

    And we're done
    Lying for the living
    The strange days have come
    And you are ...
    You're gone
    You're gone

    You're either dead or dying
    Dead or trying
    To go

    ~ To go ~

    Good morning

    Don't Cop Out



    Source: Strange Days - Beautiful Midnight






    Quote:


    What we call schizophrenic is, as Joseph Campbell has discussed, called (positively) visionary or mystical in shamanic cultures, hence is valued, not feared or sedated with chemicals. As he clarifies in the well-known [1988] TV series, "The Power of Myth", 'The shaman is the person, male or female, who ... has an overwhelming psychological experience that turns him totally inward. It's a kind of schizophrenic crack-up. The whole unconscious opens up, and the shaman falls into it. This shaman experience has been described many, many times. It occurs all the way from Siberia right through the Americas down to Tierra del Fuego.'

    Source: The Shaman's Sickness




    Quote:


    In a series of books (e.g., A Sociable God, Up from Eden, and The Eye of Spirit), I have tried to show that religion itself has always performed two very important, but very different, functions.

    One, it acts as a way of creating meaning for the separate self: it offers myths and stories and tales and narratives and rituals and revivals that, taken together, help the separate self make sense of, and endure, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. This function of religion does not usually or necessarily change the level of consciousness in a person; it does not deliver radical transformation. Nor does it deliver a shattering liberation from the separate self altogether. Rather, it consoles the self, fortifies the self, defends the self, promotes the self.

    But two, religion has also served — in a usually very, very small minority — the function of radical transformation and liberation. This function of religion does not fortify the separate self, but utterly shatters it — not consolation but devastation, not entrenchment but emptiness, not complacency but explosion, not comfort but revolution — in short, not a conventional bolstering of consciousness but a radical transmutation and transformation at the deepest seat of consciousness itself.

    With typical translation, the self (or subject) is given a new way to think about the world (or objects); but with radical transformation, the self itself is inquired into, looked into, grabbed by its throat and literally throttled to death.

    ... authentic transformation is not a matter of belief but of the death of the believer; not a matter of translating the world but of transforming the world; not a matter of finding solace but of finding infinity on the other side of death. The self is not made content; the self is made toast.

    ... transformative religion offers authenticity. For those few individuals who are ready — that is, sick with the suffering of the separate self, and no longer able to embrace the legitimate worldview — a transformative opening to true authenticity, true enlightenment, true liberation, calls more and more insistently. And, depending upon your capacity for suffering, you will sooner or later answer the call of authenticity, of transformation, of liberation on the lost horizon of infinity.

    Transformative spirituality, authentic spirituality, is therefore revolutionary. It does not legitimate the world, it breaks the world; it does not console the world, it shatters it. And it does not render the self content, it renders it undone.


    Source: A Spirituality That Transforms





    That's why it's called "an emergency".



    .

    Edited by spiritualemerg (05/04/07 09:40 PM)

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